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Maryland bill would create Commerce complaint portal for permitting delays
Summary
Delegate Vogel and business groups urged creation of a Department of Commerce complaint portal to track and help resolve state and local permitting and licensing delays that, they say, slow small business growth.
Delegate Vogel urged the House Economic Matters Committee on Feb. 25 to back House Bill 10‑38, a proposal to add a Department of Commerce complaint portal for businesses that experience permit and licensing delays.
The portal would be intended to connect businesses experiencing permitting delays with Commerce staff whose job is to help firms navigate approvals, and to collect reports so the state could identify patterns in slow reviews at the state, county or municipal level. "This bill is pretty simple," Delegate Vogel told the committee, adding that the Department of Commerce has said it can create the portal without additional expenditures.
The Maryland Chamber of Commerce supported the measure in testimony from Grayson Wiggins, who described persistent permitting problems in local jurisdictions. Wiggins cited one case in which a sprinkler permit for a 50‑unit affordable housing project filed in January 2024 was lost when a jurisdiction migrated its permitting website; the applicant was told last week to resubmit, more than a year after the initial filing. He said the delay would hold up the housing project for “a year and a half,” and called the proposed portal a step toward identifying recurring problems and helping businesses avoid long waits.
The bill sponsor and supporters said the portal is designed to assist businesses rather than penalize local governments. The committee did not take a final vote on the measure during the hearing.
What’s next: Committee staff will decide whether to advance the bill and may request implementation details from Commerce about how the portal would route complaints and what data it would collect. No formal action was recorded in the hearing transcript.
